Emotiva XPA DR2 Gen 3

Excellent amp! I see several available on eBay for around $1200. It will work great with the Vandies!

@jasonbourne52 Thanks for the comment. Will be using a Rotel pre with balance out. I think the preamp my not be a true balance out. 

Single-end or balanced connections either is good. I think balanced is over-rated. You may be right about the Rotel being fake balanced! Me, I stick with RCA.

I agree with @jasonbourne52, the Emotiva XPA DR2 Gen 3 is a nice amp, but I prefer the sound of the Emotive XPA-1 Gen-2 it's class A up to 60 watts.

Mike

Rotel has long advertised "balanced design" but most of their gear does not have truly balanced XLR inputs and outputs...

@ditusa Thanks for the comment. Monoblocks may not be an option in my situation since my room is pretty small but it would be nice to have. Synergy is key here and with my Rotel RC-995 pre with balanced out, I dont know if their is going to be a difference.I was planning using the XLR from the pre to the Emotiva amp but from various sources, the Rotel pre seems to be not fully balanced at the output.